August Tent Camping~Wish Us Luck :)

[2goofycampers]

What's a rain gauge? I need to get me one of them!

http://www.disneystore.com/disney/s...talogFromSearch=10002&storeId=10051&N=1000249

 

[MushLRC]

http://www.disneystore.com/disney/s...talogFromSearch=10002&storeId=10051&N=1000249

That is just too darn cute!!

 

[motherof4]

http://www.disneystore.com/disney/s...talogFromSearch=10002&storeId=10051&N=1000249

Love this thread! Keep the tips coming! I love the tip about keeping the shoes in a bin just outside the door, my daughter shares a tent with her 3 brothers and the one thing she complains about the most is the stinky shoes! Another tip that could be Disney or non Disney is to take your empty toilet paper rolls and stuff them full of dryer lint, voila a fire starter! You need to keep them in a air tight bag so they are kept dry, once they are damp they don't work as great!

 

[MushLRC]

I'm also thinking of setting up 2 tents. Sleeping/relaxing in the 1 with the portable A.C. The other tent having all our plastic draw clothing bins along with one of those portable hanging racks for hanging clothes. That one can be our changing room/extra storage and keep our sleeping area less cluttered.

I don't plan on packing suite cases this trip. I have several of the plastic drawer organizer bins around here that I keep kids toys and such organized in. I plan to pack our clothes directly in that so when we get to camp... voila... I just move the bins out of the trailer and into the tent. Instant dresser.

 

[anniemck]

What's a rain gauge? I need to get me one of them!

Dollar tree has them in the garden section. It measures the amount of rainfall received. Mine was always empty except that one trip.

 

[Elianor]

This thread has been quiet for a month, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. We just booked our trip for tent camping at the Fort in August too. We are going down the first week of that month and staying in our 12x12 canvas tent.

Being experienced "medieval" campers, the idea of camping in a place with a real bathroom is a treat. We will have a bed, two cots for the kids, a modern shade fly (hopefully screened) and modern cooking equipment- although I plan to bring mostly snack food.

My husband is being a bit twitchy about camping, but if can do this in Kansas City in June when all the major thunderstorms roll through every three days, this should be a piece of cake.

I'm really very excited to try out "camping" at Disney!

 

[MushLRC]

This thread has been quiet for a month, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. We just booked our trip for tent camping at the Fort in August too. We are going down the first week of that month and staying in our 12x12 canvas tent.

Being experienced "medieval" campers, the idea of camping in a place with a real bathroom is a treat. We will have a bed, two cots for the kids, a modern shade fly (hopefully screened) and modern cooking equipment- although I plan to bring mostly snack food.

My husband is being a bit twitchy about camping, but if can do this in Kansas City in June when all the major thunderstorms roll through every three days, this should be a piece of cake.

I'm really very excited to try out "camping" at Disney!

I'm excited for you

You will be there before me so by all means update us on how it goes, lol. My thoughts are that as long as you know what your are heading for and prepare accordingly, anything is doable. If not then boy wont we have a story to tell, lol

 

[SolitaryPhoenix]

I'm going tent-camping in August also, solo, and am loving all the tips and suggestions in this thread. I'm a fairly experienced camper, but this is my first solo trip, and of course, you're always learning, no matter how much experience you have!

 

[Elianor]

Strangely, although I do love staying at the nice resorts at Disney, I've had more fun planning this excursion than the others. We are planning on dealing with the heat by spending time at the pool and not pushing too hard. DH has gotten very excited about planning out snacks and meals that we can carry to keep the kids hydrated and happy- while balancing the junk food at the parks that we *all* want.

The big issue is that we all eat differently. My daughter dislikes most meat, I dislike sweets (especially for breakfast), DH wants sweets at every meal, and my son is fine with anything as long as there is a lot of it. So no one wants the same foods for breakfast and the only snacks we can agree on are fruits, veggies, nuts and some chips (but never the same kind).

I've got the kitchen box started, the camping gear together in the garage and lists and more lists of things to put together, like the medical kit and toiletries.

I do so love a nice Disney trip and I can't wait to see how my family deals with camping. If it works, I might be able to squeak out Disney a couple of times a year.

 

[indimom]

Strangely, although I do love staying at the nice resorts at Disney, I've had more fun planning this excursion than the others. We are planning on dealing with the heat by spending time at the pool and not pushing too hard. DH has gotten very excited about planning out snacks and meals that we can carry to keep the kids hydrated and happy- while balancing the junk food at the parks that we *all* want.

The big issue is that we all eat differently. My daughter dislikes most meat, I dislike sweets (especially for breakfast), DH wants sweets at every meal, and my son is fine with anything as long as there is a lot of it. So no one wants the same foods for breakfast and the only snacks we can agree on are fruits, veggies, nuts and some chips (but never the same kind).

I've got the kitchen box started, the camping gear together in the garage and lists and more lists of things to put together, like the medical kit and toiletries.

I do so love a nice Disney trip and I can't wait to see how my family deals with camping. If it works, I might be able to squeak out Disney a couple of times a year.

Good Luck!
I've got lists on top of lists also. It's a bit crazy. lol. But necessary.
Like you, I'm hoping this will be a more relaxing and restful Disney trip than we've taken in the past. I can't wait. Only 3 more weeks!
And, I'll be back to post how things went just in time for all you August tenters!

 

[MushLRC]

Good Luck!
I've got lists on top of lists also. It's a bit crazy. lol. But necessary.
Like you, I'm hoping this will be a more relaxing and restful Disney trip than we've taken in the past. I can't wait. Only 3 more weeks!
And, I'll be back to post how things went just in time for all you August tenters!

Just checking in to see if anyone has gone and been back during these hot wet summer months.

I'm realizing our trip is only about 3 1/2 weeks away. Still a bit anxious about 2 weeks in a tent in August but it's all about the adventure right?

 

[loislane]

Hey - looks like we'll be there at the same time!

Hope you have a great time on your trip! I think as long as you have the portable a/c and fans to move the air around, you should be fine. And I still think a hot muggy day at Disney is better than being anywhere else.

 

[MushLRC]

Hey - looks like we'll be there at the same time!

Hope you have a great time on your trip! I think as long as you have the portable a/c and fans to move the air around, you should be fine. And I still think a hot muggy day at Disney is better than being anywhere else.

I couldn't agree more

I hope you have a magical time yourself

 

[indimom]

Just got back yesterday from a wonderful trip to Ft. Wilderness.
We stayed five days and the family LOVED the Ft.

We didn't request a loop and ended up in 1500. This was perfect for us since we didn't rent a golf cart and didn't have any way to bring bikes.
You really do need a golf cart or bikes to thoroughly enjoy Ft. Wilderness. If we are ever able to vacation there again, we'll bring bikes so that we can split up and do our own thing.

The bus system works, but we were very glad we had our car. It was very quick and easy driving to the parks and Downtown Disney.

Our site was 1512 and it had plenty room for our 16X16 tent and our 14X14 screen house.

We brought a window a/c unit for the tent and only used it 2 of the 5 nights (and that made it too cold after an hour or two and we turned it off both nights). We could have gotten by easily with a fan. The nights were quite cool and not very humid.

We were going to bring a tarp set up with extendable poles to help protect from the rain, but we ended up leaving it home and didn't really need it anyway. The tent stayed dry even through the daily rain showers.

Our one fail:
Make sure you store ALL your dry foods inside a sealable container. We left out some bread and bananas one day and the squirrels feasted quite well.
I know, we don't sound like very experienced campers, but we've seriously never had an issue with wildlife before so we had gotten a bit less-than-cautious.
And those squirrels knew we were suckers after that and checked out our site for more on a regular basis. DS was in the screen house one day and a squirrel tried to crawl under the opposite side. DS went over there to scare it off, and it just moved to the other side. It wasn't the least bit worried about him being in there. Not shy at all. lol.
Luckily, we learned our lesson quickly and everything was sealed up tight so we had no repeat food loss.

In addition to the squirrels, we saw tons of frogs and lizards (and enjoyed the frog chorus every night). We saw snapping turtles (twice), an armadillo, a family of deer (twice) and had a turkey stroll by within touching distance at our tent (that one really surprised us. you'd never see that in Indiana, they are very shy and elusive here).

Ice to refill the coolers was not as badly priced as I was led to believe. Not cheap, but not ridiculous either. We had two standard size coolers (with six frozen half gallons of water and all our food prepped and frozen ahead of time) so they were easy to maintain the entire trip. We topped off twice at $4 each time and easily made it through the five days. We used the water in our half-gallons as it melted and had ice-cold drinking water at our site for all five days.

The fireworks from the beach were lovely and very peaceful. I'm not sure we'll ever go back to the MK madhouse for fireworks again. I know you don't get the same show, but with the music, it was just as nice and much more relaxing for us.

That's about all I can think of for now.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

[motherof4]

Just got back yesterday from a wonderful trip to Ft. Wilderness.
We stayed five days and the family LOVED the Ft.

We didn't request a loop and ended up in 1500. This was perfect for us since we didn't rent a golf cart and didn't have any way to bring bikes.
You really do need a golf cart or bikes to thoroughly enjoy Ft. Wilderness. If we are ever able to vacation there again, we'll bring bikes so that we can split up and do our own thing.

The bus system works, but we were very glad we had our car. It was very quick and easy driving to the parks and Downtown Disney.

Our site was 1512 and it had plenty room for our 16X16 tent and our 14X14 screen house.

We brought a window a/c unit for the tent and only used it 2 of the 5 nights (and that made it too cold after an hour or two and we turned it off both nights). We could have gotten by easily with a fan. The nights were quite cool and not very humid.

We were going to bring a tarp set up with extendable poles to help protect from the rain, but we ended up leaving it home and didn't really need it anyway. The tent stayed dry even through the daily rain showers.

Our one fail:
Make sure you store ALL your dry foods inside a sealable container. We left out some bread and bananas one day and the squirrels feasted quite well.
I know, we don't sound like very experienced campers, but we've seriously never had an issue with wildlife before so we had gotten a bit less-than-cautious.
And those squirrels knew we were suckers after that and checked out our site for more on a regular basis. DS was in the screen house one day and a squirrel tried to crawl under the opposite side. DS went over there to scare it off, and it just moved to the other side. It wasn't the least bit worried about him being in there. Not shy at all. lol.
Luckily, we learned our lesson quickly and everything was sealed up tight so we had no repeat food loss.

In addition to the squirrels, we saw tons of frogs and lizards (and enjoyed the frog chorus every night). We saw snapping turtles (twice), an armadillo, a family of deer (twice) and had a turkey stroll by within touching distance at our tent (that one really surprised us. you'd never see that in Indiana, they are very shy and elusive here).

Ice to refill the coolers was not as badly priced as I was led to believe. Not cheap, but not ridiculous either. We had two standard size coolers (with six frozen half gallons of water and all our food prepped and frozen ahead of time) so they were easy to maintain the entire trip. We topped off twice at $4 each time and easily made it through the five days. We used the water in our half-gallons as it melted and had ice-cold drinking water at our site for all five days.

The fireworks from the beach were lovely and very peaceful. I'm not sure we'll ever go back to the MK madhouse for fireworks again. I know you don't get the same show, but with the music, it was just as nice and much more relaxing for us.

That's about all I can think of for now.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

So glad you had a great time camping! Good to know about the air conditioner, we are planing on only bringing fans when we go in three weeks! We always freeze water for the coolers, works out well every time!
Never underestimate critters when camping, we have had a raccoon locked in our van overnight before (not at the fort) ! $1500 in damage later and all our food eaten, but that's a whole other story!